Increasing Opportunities for Low-Income Women and Student Parents in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math at Community Colleges

About this Report

This report analyzes trends in women’s representation in Science, Technology Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields of study at community colleges, as well as promising institutional and broader policy initiatives for improving recruitment, retention, and completion rates for women students in general and student parents in particular. This report is a product of IWPR’s Student Parent Success Initiative, a multifaceted project designed to share knowledge, raise awareness, and improve public policies to support positive outcomes for low-income student parents seeking higher education.

About the Author

Cynthia Costello, Ph.D., is a consultant and the author of IWPR’s report, Opportunities for Low-Income Women and Student Parents in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math at Community Colleges. Dr. Costello has held senior leadership positions at the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, the Radcliffe Public Policy Institute/Harvard University, the Women’s Research and Education Institute, and Families USA. Her publications include a five-volume series, The American Woman, and a number of reports on women’s issues, economic security, education, employment, health care, and aging issues.

Podcast

A number of public policy efforts are focused on increasing the number of U.S. adults with postsecondary credentials, and especially degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Efforts to improve economic outcomes through STEM degree attainment, however, are likely to be much more successful if they address and work to ameliorate longstanding segregation by sex and race in STEM education.

Some of the fastest growing occupations in the U.S. economy are in STEM fields with total employment predicted to increase at a considerably faster rate than the labor market as a whole. While overall employment is projected to increase by 10 percent between 2008 and 2018, some STEM sub-specialties are expected to expand by 20 or 30 percent.

This podcast features Cynthia B. Costello, Ph.D., sharing findings from a new IWPR report on the declining number of women entering the vital and fast growing fields of science, technology, engineering, and math.